Constituent files ethics complaint against Rep. Seaman

An Aransas Pass woman has filed two complaints with the Texas Ethics
Commission against state Rep. Gene Seaman related to his use of
campaign funds to pay rent on an Austin condo owned by his wife.

The complaints were filed Thursday by Jay Masterson, 63, a
Republican who now is supporting Seaman's Democratic challenger, Juan
Garcia. She claims Seaman's $1,000-a-month rental payments for the
condo since 1999 amounted to using political contributions for personal
gain and to purchase real property, in violation of the code. The
roughly $500 a month he paid in condo association/homeowner association
fees also violates the code, according to one of Masterson's
complaints.

Seaman's office faxed a copy Friday of a May 4, 1999, letter from
the Ethics Commission to the Caller-Times that says it is permissible
for Seaman to pay rent to his wife as long as the condominium is his
"wife's separate property."

Seaman, R-Corpus Christi, and his wife, Ellen, were unavailable for
comment Friday and Monday.

Seaman's office and Masterson confirmed that the complaints were
filed.

Texas Ethics Commission spokesman Tim Sorrells would not confirm the
complaints against Seaman, as is commission policy. Once a complaint is
filed, he said, the Texas Ethics Commission determines whether it falls
into the agency's jurisdiction, which includes campaign finance-related
issues.

If the commission accepts a complaint, a public official has 10 or
25 business days, depending on the nature of the allegations, to
respond. Once the official responds, the commission staff reviews and
gathers evidence and presents it to the eight-member commission. Its
next meeting is Dec. 1. The election is Nov. 7.

If the commission determined there was a violation, it can assess a
fine of as much as $5,000 or three times the amount at issue, whichever
is greater.

What Masterson says she wants reviewed is whether Gene and Ellen
Seaman have separate property. Masterson and lawyers contacted Friday
and Monday say the condo most likely is community property - unless the
Seamans can prove otherwise - because they have been married for 50
years.

In a required 2005 personal financial statement, Seaman says he is a
real estate developer and owner, financial planner and insurance agent.
The statement lists Ellen Seaman as a housewife.

Texas law presumes that everything owned during marriage is
community property, said Ann Coover, a local lawyer, board certified in
family law.

"Unless the parties involved can show evidence that the funds paying
for a particular asset were a gift, inherited or owned at the time of
marriage, it is presumed to be community property," she said.

If Gene Seaman provided his wife with the funds to buy the condo, it
would constitute a gift and would be viewed as community property,
lawyers said.

Property also can be separated contractually after marriage, lawyers
said. The contract, called a partition and exchange agreement, must be
in writing, signed by both partners and notarized, lawyers said.

Monday, Seaman's spokesman Mac McCall said there is no written
property separation agreement between the Seamans. Ellen Seaman paid
cash for the condo with her own "personal income and assets," McCall
said. He declined to disclose Ellen Seaman's source of the money.

"It's a personal matter of a private citizen," he said.

Ellen Seaman also received a homestead and over-65 exemption for the
Austin property, which isn't allowed because their primary residence is
in Corpus Christi and they already receive those exemptions here. She
signed the application for a residential homestead exemption on the
Travis County property and checked the box to get the additional
over-65 exemption. She did not check the box above it for the general
residential exemption, which explained applicants are eligible only if
they have not claimed another homestead exemption.

The Seamans repaid $11,083 to correct the error. McCall said the
allegations against the Seamans and the resulting complaints from
Masterson are a political attack by Seaman's opponent, Democrat Juan
Garcia.

"She paid for the condo and that's it," he said. "When the ethics
commission reviews this and they ask for it we will be more than
willing to provide the appropriate paperwork. This is an attack by the
Juan Garcia campaign on Gene Seaman's wife. He needs to discuss issues
important to District 32 voters and stop attacking Gene Seaman's
wife."

Garcia's political camp said it didn't have a hand in the
complaints.

"There is only one person who blamed Gene Seaman's wife for his
legal problems and that's Gene Seaman," Garcia said. "My campaign has
focused exclusively on the Coastal Bend's future and not Gene Seaman's
past."

Masterson said her complaints had nothing to do with Garcia and that
she has not worked for his campaign or donated money.

"The only thing I have done is I have recently joined Republicans
for Garcia," Masterson said. "What got me there was an accumulation of
Seaman's prior behavior."

Masterson, a former 911 director for the Coastal Bend Council of
Governments, described herself as a lifelong Republican who started
working elections with the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign in
1964 and the College Young Republicans in Washington, D.C. She has
served as a state Republican convention delegate, a precinct election
judge and clerk, and a precinct chairman, she said.

"I supported Rep. Seaman when he first went to the Legislature," she
said. "After he was re-elected to two terms, I became disappointed with
his performance as a legislator and his inability to relate to the
aspirations of middle-class constituents."